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Showing posts with label Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Could We with Ink the Ocean Fill...


Could we with ink the ocean fill;
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill'
And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Unknown

This is verse 3 of Frederick Lehman's hymn {The Love of God" (1917),  This verse is apparently an adapted translation of a Jewish poem by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai (1050).  It seems that the hymn-writer found it scribbled on the walls of a patient's room in an insane asylum after the death of its occupant.  Whatever its origins, it is a wonderful and unusually striking piece of devotional writing.